The monthly urban-music networking event hosted by Sess 4-5 and DJ Wild Wayne turns 4 on Monday night, October 3, with a special program of speakers and performers. (It’s also the 48th event in the series; the 50th will take place the first Monday in December.)

The monthly networking party turns 4 on Monday, October 3.

Sess and Wayne began the event in 2007 with the hopes of creating a forum for local hip-hop and R&B performers, who they saw managing their own recording, production and distribution more than ever, to learn the ropes of the music business as well as network in person with one another. The program of the event – which is often a six-hour marathon of performances and speakers – has included tributes to well-known New Orleans artists like Mystikal and Mia X, “American Idol” styled performance segments in which young artists get immediate feedback on their acts from veterans, and nuts-and-bolts business talk from the Jazz and Heritage Foundation’s Scott Aiges, the Recording Academy’s Reid Wick, and the Rap Coalition’s Wendy Day.

Looking back on four years and forward to the next, Wild Wayne says that future goals include responding to invitations from nearby cities to bring the event there.

“We’ve gotten requests to branch out along the Gulf Coast, Biloxi, Jackson, Baton Rouge,” he said, “so that’s part of the plan for 2012. It’s been so productive for artists that we’d like to see it on a wider scale.”

He also hopes to expand the event into an annual weekend-long conference. Out of all the hip-hop-themed programs, he says, one of his favorites was a panel dedicated to brass bands.

“To see all those artists together in one place,” he said, “reminded me of the Great Day In Harlem picture. It was crazy.”

In other hip-hop news, dates for the 3d annual Bayou Urban Music Conference, presented by New Orleans’ GO DJs, were announced this week. The conference will take place at the Hookah at 309 Decatur St. on Saturday, November 5. Click here for tickets.

And finally, the foxy, one-woman hip-hop juggernaut Na’Tee – who writes, records, mixes, directs and edits her own music and videos – has added another element to her talent and technology blitz. Download the official Na’Tee mobile app for Android here.